family visit

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Well the computers at the hotel have been down but Amy finally got smart and told them at the desk so now we can use them again. Things are a little disorganized and confused here but we get by. There is definitely a difference between the english we speak and the english spoken here and things are mixed up often.
We started the day with a visit to Kamalas house (Amy's social worker). It is always a privilege and a treat to see inside a house and she and her husband live in a tiny, neat apartment. Her husband remembered the tools which we had shopped for when Kamala visited us 19 years ago - he is an electical engineer. He especially remembered his favorite - vice grips - which he hadn't seen before. We were wishing that we had brought him a leatherman so we will have to find a way to get him one. Next we stopped to buy fruit and eggs for the children at Amy's orphanage. It started to pour rain so we stopped at a local roadside stand to avoid the muck that would be at the market. At a small street side stand they had Washington apples! The weren't selling them though because everyone prefered Indian grown apples.
Amy remembered the orphanage being in the country outside the city, but in 20 years it has all grown up around the buildings. It was so interesting to see it and meet all of the wonderful people she has spoken of and to see all of the work they do. There were 50 children who sang and danced for us and gave us small gifts. We toured the buildings and the rooms that Amy remembered. It was very emotional to meet her Grandmother, mother, sister, neice, nephew and uncle. We had a wonderful reunion and conversations with them and took a lot of good photos. We were able to meet her uncle that had taught her to climb trees and throw rocks so accurately. Amy had brought along toys for her neice and nephew (Kala's son is 7 and daughter is 6) and so they weren't shy for long and were soon playing with all of us.
We finished off the day by getting some of Amy's family photos printed so we won't have to try to mail them and a little more souvenir shopping. The traffic has the whole city at a standstill all of the time - so it takes forever to get anywhere. This hotel is on such a busy street that you would need a taxi to cross the street so we're a little trapped inside. Luckily we're all good at taxis by now.

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